Faber, Pulver prep for title clash with victories at WEC 31

Jug•ger•naut / noun – a force that is relentlessly destructive, crushing, and insensitive.

That’s the dictionary’s take, but in the world of mixed martial arts, the definition is better described by these two words – Urijah Faber.

After beating Jeff Curran – a Gracie-trained jiu-jitsu black belt – at his own game, Faber is as unstoppable a force as there is in MMA today. “The California Kid” won his 12th straight fight by forcing Curran to tap from a guillotine choke at 4:34 of the second round in the main event of World Extreme Cagefighting 31 Wednesday night at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Faber, 28, was on his back during much of the first round, as Curran was the first fighter in ages to appear to have a chance at derailing the Faber freight train – emphasis on appear. But Faber came out for the second round, dropped some elbows, land a pair of knee strikes, locked Curran (31-9-1) in a makeshift triangle and eventually decided the bout with the choke.

“I am making things up in there. I’m a creative fighter,” said Faber, who was unfazed by Curran’s early edge in the fight. “I get my back taken on purpose all day long (in practice). There’s no way I’m getting choked out.”

On paper, it was Faber’s toughest fight, but he looked as good as ever in defending his WEC featherweight title for the fourth time. The victory sets up a huge bout between Faber (20-1) and Jens Pulver.

“Lil’ Evil” rolls through Swanson

The colorful pre-bout verbal battle between Pulver and Cub Swanson lasted a whole lot longer than the actual fight. A rejuvenated Pulver looked very sharp in squeezing an anaconda choke on Swanson that forced the younger fighter to tap just 35 seconds into the bout.

Pulver neutralized a single-leg takedown attempt from Swanson to open the match and when they finally went to the ground, Pulver, 33, wasted no time in going for the submission on a fighter who labeled him one-dimensional.

“Enough of the left hand … everybody expects the left hand, so let’s go out there and start grappling,” said Pulver (22-8-1).

“Lil’ Evil,” who’s now unbeaten at 8-0 in his career at 145-lbs., says he wants to fight for the title in three months.

Filho, Marshall defend; Moore drops WEC debut

Middleweight champion Paulo Filho’s first title defense ended in controversy.

The Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace, who was being touted by some MMA experts as the best middleweight in the world going into the fight, fell short of that billing and looked like he was fighting in slow motion against Chael Sonnen. Sonnen staved off two submission attempts in the first round and dominated much of the action with a pair of takedowns and persistent ground-and-pound that looked to have Filho in some danger.

Sonnen came out in the second delivering more of the same, but, referee Josh Rosenthal waved off the fight with five seconds to go in the round from what he said was a verbal submission by Sonnen.

“The referee looked at me as though to ask if I wanted to stop, and I said no,” Sonnen (21-9-1) said after the fight. “I proclaimed it over and over … no, no, no. They stopped the fight. I’m very disappointed. I’m also disappointed in myself that I got caught in the submission. That’s my fault. He’s the champion for a reason.”

Filho didn’t look like the same fighter who steamrolled over Joe Doerksen in his WEC debut in August. He was sluggish and defensive throughout the two rounds, but he got the job done by capitalizing on the Sonnen mistake to move his unblemished record to 16-0.

Doug Marshall ended the first title fight of the evening with an armbar submission of Cuban defector Ariel Gandulla at 55 seconds of the opening round. Gandulla caught Marshall with a takedown out of a flying knee from “The Rhino,” but Gandulla was overmatched once the fight went horizontal.

The heavy-hitting Marshall clamped on to Gandulla’s exposed right arm and rolled into a vicious armbar to claim his first submission victory in more than four years. The pumped up Marshall (7-2) jumped out of the cage immediately after the win to slap high fives with fired-up fans.

“I’ve got tons of hostility to take out on everybody,” said the 30-year-old Marshall, who made his second successful WEC title defense, and, thankfully, didn’t hurt anyone in the crowd.

Houston-area native Todd Moore made his debut on the card and dropped a unanimous decision to veteran John Alessio, who dictated the majority of the bout. All three judges saw the fight 30-27 in favor of Alessio.

The loss is Moore’s first as a pro in 10 starts.

Next up for WEC, a Feb. 13 date with welterweight champion Carlos Condit expected to take on Houston’s Carlo Prater in a rematch of their 2004 fight won by Prater. Lightweight titleholder Rob McCullough also is tabbed for WEC’s first show of 2008.

12 Responses

About my last comment, it wasn’t about your editorial but was a statement by me alluding to the fustration I have for Dana White and Fedor’s agents for not getting a fight set up between Randy and Fedor already.

Chael Sonnen is an idiot. That guy was whipping Fihlo from pillar to post and he insisted to fighted from Fihlo’s full guard. I don’t care that the ref apparently made two huge mistakes (Sonnen claimed Fihlo was knocked out after the slam 30 seconds into the fight and then the “verbal” submission) Sonnen’s gameplan was terrible.

I was unsure about how good Fihlo was after the Doerkson fight, but not so much now. Fihlo is another Pride illusion. Sonnen could not keep a spot in the UFC and was dominating Fihlo.

“The Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace, who was being touted by some MMA experts as the best middleweight in the world going into the fight, fell short of that billing and looked like he was fighting in slow motion against Chael Sonnen.”

You’re not kidding. He looked awful last night and lucked out in Sonnen leaving himself exposed. He had that armbar tight, but Sonnen didn’t submit. I suspect Sonnen would have submitted if he couldn’t have escaped in the next few seconds, but it was a poor decision by the ref to stop the bout at that juncture. And standing around with that stupid smirk on his face while Sonnen protested was bad form by the ref. Frank Mir had it exactly right: if Sonnen hadn’t insisted on taking the fight to the ground, he would have won the fight easily.

As far as Filho being the top middleweight, no chace. Anderson Silva would have dismembered the Filho that showed up last night. I suspect that the whole rap about them not wanting to fight eachother has less to do with their friendship and more to do with the foregone conclusion that said match would be.

My main thouhgts after last nights show was “Good Lord Urijah Faber is good”. That guy is so quick and so powerful I never really thought once he was in trouble. To only weigh in at 145 and still look that strong and that explosive is incredible, now I see why the WEC is pushing him so hard. Jens match was alright, looked to me like his opponent was outmatched. Urijah would have to be the favorite if they fight, Jens is just not athletic enough to deal with him. I have to say that Marshall did not impress me at all, he both looks and acts like a thug. Just look at him, he’s not strong, not fast, and not really that athletic. Could not see how it would be possible for him to defeat other 205 guys like Forrest, Chuck, or even Keith. Cant wait to see him lose. Great show overall, looks like the UFC is putting a lot of money into the UFC, good for fights fans as a whole.

Rami wrote: I have to say that Marshall did not impress me at all, he both looks and acts like a thug. Just look at him, he’s not strong, not fast, and not really that athletic.

Word.

Zuffa needs to decide what the WEC is supposed to be. At the lower weights it can be a first-rate must-see promotion. But if they want to pretend that the WEC Middleweight Champ (Fihlo) is on par with the UFC Middleweight Champ (Silva), or the WEC Light Heavyweight Champ (Marshall) is on par with the UFC Light Heavyweight Champ (Jackson), then they must think we’re really dumb and gullible. In those weight classes, all the WEC can be is like a AAA in Major League Baseball.

Stick to what you’re good at. The best small guys going at it full speed is a damn good thing. Second-tier light heavyweights calling themselves the champions of the world is not a good thing.

Faber is the man. If he was one class bigger and in the UFC he would be a huge star. His matrix knee with his other leg being held as unreal. Filho should be thankful for bad officiating. I am surprised that Herb Dean wasn’t there it was such a bad call. Sonnen looked good but I don’t know why he insisted on taking him down when he had such a big reach advantage. I wonder if Dana gets mad when Lindland gets shown on TV?

You did not mention the Valencia fight where he backdropped the guy on his head. Funny and scary. I agree that Marshall is annoying and he should be glad that he is in WEC or he would be fighting James Irvin or someone in the undercards.

Thank you for calling out Herb Dean, the worst ref in the history of MMA. Im shocked that guy still gets gigs, he has possibly the slowest reactions Ive seen on someone who is supposed to act quickly. Why does he wave his hands in the air BEFORE actually stopping the fight? A guy is getting his face pounded and good ole Herb is staning on top waving his hands like he’s doing the Macarena. Only after 5 seconds of the silly Herb dance, he decides to pull the guy off.

ChrisinCyrpess,

Couldnt agree more with your assesment. the WEC is currently AAAMMA, I wouldnt put it much above HDNet fights on Friday night. Id love to see Marshall attempt to fight a real guy, not some slow Cuban with loose limbs.

I think it was a great night of fights… The funny thing is the WEC is supposed to be like a minor league to the UFC but through out the entire night they were trying to match up their guys with UFC guys and predicting the outcomes.

Valencia’s suplex was crazy!!! He rocked that dude a couple of times and on top of that dropped him on his head. I have never really like Faber too much, but he beat a BJJ black belt at his own game I got to give him credit on that. Sonnen definitely had a dumb fight plan, should have kept the fight standing, Fihlo was out of it the entire first round which basically accounted for him being dominated. The second wasn’t much different but when he had Sonnen in his guard he was more active and wasn’t looking just to survive like the first round. I enjoyed these fights… but Marshall would get his butt handed to him buy most 205ers in the UFC.

Thank you for calling out Herb Dean, the worst ref in the history of MMA. Im shocked that guy still gets gigs, he has possibly the slowest reactions Ive seen on someone who is supposed to act quickly.

I’m glad to see there are at least two other people who see what my buddy and I complain about on a regular basis. You mentioned the Herb Dean dance where he waves his hands around while someone gets his face caved in, but you forgot the ultra-ridiculous Herb Dean special: his exclusive move where he stops the fight, breaks the action, then changes his mind and lets them continue the fight. I remember for certain that he did it once on this season’s Ultimate Fighter show, and Matt Serra even called him out on it. He also did it in the daytime pay per view from Ireland earlier in the year. And let’s not forget his horrible decision-making in the Cro Cop/Gonzaga fight when he stood them up while Gonzaga was completely destroying Cro Cop on the ground. If Cro Cop had gone on to win that fight there would have been accusations of the fix being in on that one.

Unfortunately, now that Big John McCarthy has retired, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Herb Dean, and now he’s got a new protege in this Rosenthal character. We need more of Mazagatti, Yamasaki and Lavigne, and less of those two jokers.